Nordic Life Science 1
, Founding a company of course teaches you a lot
and you gain important insights. Timo Koskela advises that if you are planning to spin-out from a university, start the negotiations for the IPR transfer in time. “It may be that your home university does not have a clear process for the IPR transfer, or you may enter into difficult negotiations about the valuation of your company (which affects the percentage of shares the university will get once the IPR is transferred, and further, may affect the investors’ interest in your company), and therefore it may take a lot of time – reserve at least half a year. Luckily for us, the IPR transfer from the University of Oulu was rather smooth.” Also, try to attract the interest of several potential VCs, angels, etc., to create some healthy competition, is Koskela’s advice. This may help optimizing your valuation and speeding up the process in general. “If you are raising your first funding round, I would recommend that you reserve 6 to 12 months’ time depending on the maturity of your investor materials (business plan etc.) and your current connections with the VCs, angels, etc.,” he advises. When you draft your roadmap, Koskela would also recommend leaving room for delays. It is always better to “under-promise” and then “over-deliver” than be delayed. Koskela says he thinks Finland provides good conditions for a high-tech medical start-up when you apply for the seed funding. However, the challenge is that it takes a lot of time and effort to develop a medical device and bring it to the market due to all standards and regulations to be followed, which are of course definitely needed. “Therefore, I believe that the seed funding is rarely enough for the commercialization of a medical invention, and therefore typically another funding round (late seed/pre-A) is required. This is much more difficult to get, as you do not yet have any revenue, and consequently any proof that the upcoming product will actually sell,” he says. Another important aspect of founding a company is networking, he continues. “It is a must for every founder or co-founder. If people know you or know at least a (trusted) person who knows you, it is much easier to start discussions on collaboration or other business activities. Even in B2B, it is still people who make the deals.” Koskela also emphasizes the composition of the team. You must have all the essential pieces in place, or you need to recruit the missing talent and/or buy the services. “Also take good care of your team, both the co-founders and particularly the employees, because you have extremely talented and motivated people, but they are only a few and you cannot afford to lose any of them.” Koskela and his colleagues are currently finalizing their upcomCerenion’s solution utilizes AI to compress the complex EEG signal into a single parameter, revealing the status of the brain ing C-Trend software product and will soon start the certification process. The first C-Trend enabled EEG product is expected to be out on the European market this year. “Our long-term goal is to make C-Trend a globally adopted solution for continuous brain monitoring in intensive care. But before we get there, let’s enjoy the journey!” states Koskela. NLS